Blondshell (album)

Blondshell is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Blondshell, released on April 7, 2023 via Partisan Records. Having previously garnered attention as a pop artist under the name BAUM, the album sees Blondshell embrace a darker alternative rock sound inspired by artists of the 1990s. Upon release, Blondshell received critical acclaim, and was included in several publications' lists of the best albums of 2023.

Background and composition
Prior to Blondshell, Sabrina Teitelbaum was an alternative pop artist under the name Baum, drawing attention with the EP Ungodly in 2018. However, she had felt increasingly unhappy with her artistic direction as Baum, later saying, "It always felt weird to me. I never loved the name and I never felt fully confident in the music." Despite completing a second EP with producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Sunflower Bean, Girlpool), Teitelbaum told Rothman in early 2020 that she no longer wished to put out the record. In response, Rothman asked to hear what else she had been working on, and upon hearing her acoustic demo of the song "Olympus", encouraged her to write more music in that vein, believing it was more authentic to her. Friends of Teitelbaum similarly encouraged this new musical direction.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Teitelbaum, recently sober from drugs and alcohol, wrote music while quarantined in her East Los Angeles apartment. She wrote mostly by herself during this period, a departure from the professional songwriters she had worked with as Baum, and initially approached the new music as "diary songs nobody's gonna hear". The album was recorded with Rothman in and around Los Angeles.

Musical style, composition, and themes
The music of Blondshell has been characterized as alternative rock, indie rock,   grunge,   and Britpop. The album was predominantly influenced by Hole's 1994 album Live Through This, as well as by Kathleen Hanna, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Mitski, The Cure, Interpol, and Butch Vig's production on The Smashing Pumpkins's Siamese Dream.

"Olympus", the first Blondshell song Teitelbaum wrote, has been described as "downtempo and bluesy" and sounding like "a long-lost cut from the Empire Records soundtrack". "Kiss City" draws on stadium rock and lounge music while echoing '90s artists like Liz Phair and Belly. "Salad" was inspired by Hole's "Doll Parts" and Nirvana's "You Know You're Right"; The Guardian described it as "wig-blowing goth-rock somewhere between the Cranberries’ angst and Depeche Mode’s shiny edges". "Doll Parts" also inspired "Sepsis", described as a grunge-pop and slacker pop song. "Joiner", reminiscent of Courtney Barnett, was influenced by Britpop artists like The Verve, Pulp, Suede, and Blur (who Teitelbaum said "channeled dark subject matter, drugs, and all this dirty stuff, but with a fun acoustic guitar under it"), as well as punk band The Replacements; Rolling Stone compared the song to a darker version of Blur's "Coffee & TV".

Lyrically, the album explores themes of heartbreak, anger, toxic relationship dynamics, queerness, addiction and substance abuse, social anxiety, and teenage media consumption. While writing the album, Teitelbaum read books including Clare Sestanovich's Objects of Desire and Rebecca Solnit's Recollections of My Non-Existence, as well as the writing of Patti Smith and Rachel Cusk, and listened to "a bunch of songs [that] had women being enraged". She also drew on her own long-repressed anger over various personal struggles and frustration at feeling unable to express that anger as a woman. Teitelbaum told Dazed, "Typically women are given permission to be sad but there's a lot of shame that gets attached to expressing anger."

Release
The album's rollout began in June 2022 with the single release of "Olympus", premiered via Nylon. A second single, "Kiss City", was released the following month, reaching over 900,000 Spotify streams and garnering praise from Rolling Stone and The New York Times; she simultaneously announced July and September tour dates with Horsegirl and Porridge Radio. The singles "Sepsis" and "Veronica Mars" were released in August and December respectively. During the latter month, Teitelbaum performed at New York's Mercury Lounge and signed to Partisan Records, who had become aware of her via SoundCloud.

While touring with actress/singer Suki Waterhouse in January 2023, Teitelbaum released her first single on Partisan, "Joiner". The Suki Waterhouse tour included stops at the El Rey and Fonda theatres in Los Angeles and at South by Southwest;  the latter saw Blondshell perform at Spin's Five Worlds party at SXSW, sponsored by Diageo, alongside Urban Heat and Chulita Vinyl Club.

Blondshell's self-titled debut album was announced for an April 7, 2023 release via Partisan. Teitelbaum also announced a UK tour for May 2023. Ahead of the album's release, BrooklynVegan listed her among their "15 Artists to Watch in 2023". On March 31, she debuted the album's sixth single, "Salad", on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with the song being officially released on April 5.

Critical reception
Blondshell received largely positive reviews upon release. The album holds a score of 84 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic, based on 10 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Thomas Smith of NME wrote, "Urgent, funny and fearless, the LA artist's debut album sees her imbue her rage with wit and fierce ambition", and called Blondshell "one of the alternative rock albums of the year, and one to treasure tightly for quite some time". Jamie Muir of Dork magazine called the album "stunning in its history, all-engulfing in its glorious hooks and ripping turns. Blondshell is the alternative arrival that 2023 has been waiting for." Caleb Campbell of The Line of Best Fit wrote that the album was "the sound of an artist finally getting to let loose and say the things that have stayed locked up inside for too long" and "an exciting introduction to a talented songwriter and a thoroughly rewarding debut." For The Guardian, Laura Snapes wrote that the album "gets at the futility of the revenge fantasy as no substitute for healing. But Blondshell, rich with bitter experience and untrammelled honesty, offers a robust shelter where listeners might start to find it." Sahar Ghadirian of Clash magazine praised the album's "sharp lyricism" and called it "a euphoric alt-rock record" and "a bold body of work, exciting and unfiltered". Ian Gormley of Exclaim! wrote that the album was "the kind of record that will infect your life, to paraphrase "Sepsis," one of the record's standouts. I, for one, am down to let it kill me." Mojo magazine's James McNair wrote, "Now 25 and treading Nirvana/Hole-influenced terrain better suited to the bleed and luster of these uncensored songs of self-empowerment, [Teitelbaum] has found her perfect skin." Reviewing of the album for AllMusic, Marcy Donelson made some favorable comparisons: "The hooky, distortion-injected results fit in alongside such candid, snarling contemporaries as Snail Mail and Indigo De Souza while differentiating themselves with a rare sense of humor -- especially rare given topics like romantic and substance addiction."

In more mixed reviews, Tom Morgan of Loud and Quiet gave the album a 6/10 score, praising the "intelligent, pathos-laden songwriting approach" but noting that "the ’90s alt-rock approach never really grabs you by the collar like her lyrics." James Hickey of DIY magazine wrote that "in its weaker moments, [the album] betrays a new artist trying to make songs with big choruses and relatable lyrics but falling short on both. It's when Blondshell isn't reaching so hard for something else that her vulnerability and grit shine through. If she can unearth that voice, whatever follows next will be remarkable."

Accolades
Alternative Press included the album in their June 23 list of the "25 Best Albums of 2023 So Far", calling it "a record lifted straight from the golden heyday of ’90s alt-rock, when explosive guitars, throat-catching lyrics, and the desire to be the next Nirvana dominated the culture".

Commercial performance
The album reached No. 88 on Billboard's Top Current Album Sales chart, selling 1,000 copies in the week of April 13 according to Luminate.

Personnel

 * Sabrina Teitelbaum – main artist
 * Yves Rothman – producer, songwriting (on "Sepsis")
 * Elijah Fox, Solomon Fox, Louis Batolini – songwriting (on "Olympus")
 * Colin Dupuis – mixing (on "Olympus")
 * Chris Coady – mixing (on "Kiss City")
 * Heba Kadry – mastering (on "Kiss City")
 * Mike Krol – layout
 * Daniel Topete – cover photography
 * Rian Fossett – creative director